Date: Thu, 25 Jul 2002 21:37:58 -0700
From: ernesthancock@cox.net ("Ernest Hancock")
Subject: [lpaz-discuss] Fw: Important News on Upcoming Stossel Special
To: lpaz-discuss@yahoogroups.com, AZRKBA@asu.edu ("Right to Keep and Bear Arms in Arizona")
Reply-To: lpaz-discuss@yahoogroups.com




----- Original Message ----- 
From: DR4LIBERTY@aol.com 
To: DR4LIBERTY@aol.com 
Sent: Thursday, July 25, 2002 8:40 PM
Subject: Important News on Upcoming Stossel Special


NEW SPECIAL TO AIR JULY 30 AT 10 PM EST ON ABC 

How many wars can America fight? Now that we're at war against terrorism, 
can we afford to also fight a drug wars in Afghanistan, Colombia, and 
against millions of our own people? Is it wise to fight on two fronts? 
Should drugs be legalized? John Stossel asks whether some of the world's 
biggest problems stem not from the drugs themselves, but from the 
prohibition of drugs, in an ABC News special, "War on Drugs, A War On 
Ourselves With John Stossel." Stossel interviews drug sellers and users, 
farmers in Colombia, and government officials, in the new special, which 
airs on TUESDAY, JULY 30 (10:00-11:00 p.m., ET), on the ABC Television 
Network. 

We know the awful things drug abuse does. We've seen the despair, the 
sunken face of the junkie, and the women who prostitute themselves for one 
more fix. But do we know the terrible things drug prohibition does? - the 
teens tempted into the underworld by flashy drug dealers, the cops 
corrupted by drug money, and the crime caused when commerce is driven into 
a black market, so buyers and sellers dealers fight over drugs that are 
literally worth their weight in gold? These are the unintended 
consequences of drug prohibition. Stossel visits the South Bronx, where 
residents live with these "unintended consequences." 

More people in America are calling for radical solutions. Stossel talks to 
a Bronx priest who argues that life would be better if drugs were legal, 
"Legal means control," says Father Joseph Kane. "Illegal means the bad 
guys have control." California Judge James Gray agrees, "hold people 
accountable for what they do, not for what they put into their bodies," he 
says. The head of the DEA, Asa Hutchinson, disagrees, calling these 
arguments "giving in." 

Stossel also reports from Colombia, South America, the country that 
produces most of America's cocaine and heroin, and talks with those who 
farm coca plants, and whose farms have been dive-bombed by planes spraying 
American herbicides. So far the spraying has not been effective. The CIA 
says Colombian coca production is up 25%. In addition, the vast profits 
created by drug prohibition are tearing Colombia apart. Today, murder is 
common, and Colombia is the country where people are most likely to be 
kidnapped. There have already been 15 attempts on the life of Colombia's 
next president; he's decided to stay in Europe until his inauguration next 
month. 

No government in the world has found a way to eliminate the drug problem; 
but some countries claim to have found success on some levels. Stossel 
takes a first-hand look at alternatives from across the globe - including 
the "Dutch experiment" which separated "hard" and "soft" drugs 25 years 
ago, by legalizing the sale of marijuana in licensed "coffee shops". Teen 
marijuana use did rise after smoking was legalized, but a few years later 
it dropped, and today fewer Dutch teens use marijuana than American teens. 

Holland's liberalization is not the exception anymore. Today police in 
most of Europe ignore marijuanause. In Spain, Italy and Luxembourg, 
they've decriminalized most drug use, and in Portugal recently, all drug 
use. Switzerland and a few other countries in Europe are now prescribing 
heroin to some addicts, and many countries in Europe don't treat use of 
hard drugs as a crime. Stossel visits a Rotterdam priest who allows 
addicts not only to smoke and inject heroin in "user rooms" in the church 
basement, but to buy and sell drugs there. Rotterdam's local police 
superintendent says the problem is "bigger" when the police interfere. 

*Link to John Stossel's web site at ABC: 
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/2020/ABCNEWSspecials/JohnStossel.html 

*Invite your friends to join the Stossel in the Classroom 
newsletter! All they need to do is go to our website and fill 
in their email address ( http://www.intheclassroom.org ) 




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]


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